Perhaps you or I think we would have turned to Josh Beckett, and told the once and former Red Sox staff ace to sit tight for another night, or until the World Series, or until spring training.

Easy to say, but even had we been in position to do so, it would have been the wrong decision.

Beckett proved as much in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series with five innings of two-run, four-hit ball at Tampa Bay. He left with a lead and vindicated Terry Francona's decision to start him, but this decision didn't really need vindicating.

It went to the heart of why this manager has succeeded in Boston, after countless others before him did not.

Francona will make the hard calls, even if it takes him a while to get around to it, especially when a veteran is involved.

In the 2007 ALCS, he yanked Coco Crisp for Jacoby Ellsbury. He has been pinch-hitting for Jason Varitek.

They were the right decisions, but still, not easy ones.

Pitching Beckett was not the easier decision, either. It was the harder one.

Using Jon Lester in Game 6 would have a popular choice, widely applauded by fans and media. Francona knows that. So do his players.

Flip-flopping his starters, though, would not have been done as a vote of confidence in Lester. It would have been accurately seen as a lack of trust in Beckett.

Francona wouldn't do it. He will not, for lack of a more politically correct term, emasculate his fiercest battlers.

If Beckett could possibly pitch, his manager would not disrespect his competitiveness by denying the chance.

Given Beckett's last two starts, starting him involved risk. But it also reflected the deeper loyalty and trust Francona places in his players, especially his best ones.

The payback has been immeasurable. With the periodic exception of Manny Ramirez, Francona's guys have knocked themselves out, trying to return that loyalty.

Divided in the clubhouse and underachievers on the field in the pre-Terry days, the Red Sox have become a united band of lions under pressure. They will play hurt and play out of position, and fight to the final out together.

This stems directly from Francona's philosophy of trust. Asking him to put that aside now, just because sticking to it is risky or potentially unpopular, is not only unrealistic, but not very smart.

The Red Sox believe in extra rest for their pitchers. Lester pitched 72 innings in 2007, but has 230 this year.

That is part of why it was Beckett in Game 6, but the full reason goes deeper.

Beckett has been more than just the staff's best pitcher. He has been its spiritual leader, a guy Francona uses as an example of how all his pitchers, especially his young ones, should prepare and compete.

For years, that has mattered, often in subtle and unspoken ways. With this decision at such a critical hour, Francona was saying it still does.

It is the old players'-manager thing. It is why the old jokes about Curt Schilling telling Francona when he was done, as opposed to the other way around, had some credence.

But it is also why, with Schilling's age and health in mind, Francona could quietly start shortening his starts, without a peep of dispute from his opinionated pitcher.

It is his managerial strength, whether pundits or fans misinterpreted it as a weakness, exposed by his indulgence of Beckett.

Francona never forgets it is his players who turned him from a loser in Philadelphia to a winner in Boston. When he could easily bail out on them, he does not.

This philosophy explains why this team even made it as far as ALCS Game 6, and why Francona's clubs have repeatedly made their fans proud under pressure, after previous Red Sox teams did not. Maybe after Game 6, more fans who want him to abandon that philosophy in tight spots will understand why he won't.